Meetings – they’re the bane of the office, yet also necessary. And there are a lot of them – Atteniv reckons that there are 11 million meetings a day in the US (doing the math, that comes to over a billion a year), at an average salary cost of $338 per meeting (which does not count CEOs and other business leaders – those meetings can run as high as $20,000 each). And the Wall Street Journal reports that the time employees spend in meetings has risen 10% since 2000. That’s a lot of time and money.

With the rise of blogs and online news sources, there’s no shortage of analysis of how top CEOs and managers run their meetings, and advice on what to do, and what not to do. Let’s take a look at some pointers, and see how your digital signage can actually help make your meetings more efficient and less costly.

Determine the Type

First, you need to determine what kind of meeting you need. Common types include staff meetings, task force meetings, information sharing, status updates, decision making, problem solving, innovation and team building. Those first three are the most common, accounting for 88% of all meeting types. Each type of meeting will have different requirements and goals, and will determine things like attendees, agenda and time allocated.

Have an Agenda

Attentiv reports that 63% of meetings are conducted without a planned agenda. This is a mistake – poor preparation is cited as the number two complaint about meetings (and being disorganized is number three). And, research shows that meetings that start on time and have a detailed agenda are up to 80% shorter than those that don’t. Spend twice as much time on the agenda as you think you need to, and then stick to it once the meeting begins.

Part of this process is having a clear objective for the meeting. The participants need to be well-prepared or the meeting will veer off in odd directions, or get bogged down in background and catching up. This is frustrating for those who have done their homework, and sends the message that no one needs to actually prepare anything, since it’s all going to be gone over again in the meeting itself.

Here’s where your digital signage can help out. Any data or background information attendees need will probably have been emailed to them. But office workers receive over 100 emails a day, and it can take ages for them to get around to reading one. Send out reminder messages on your digital signage as the meeting approaches, with a QR code or short URL to the appropriate documents cloud-stored online somewhere. Using hashtags can also help people find all relevant information they need for a meeting.

Consider using touchscreen or kiosks as well – a huge amount of searchable information can be presented in this way, and people don’t have to run back to their work area to get it.

You should also spend extra time on the attendee list – only have the people present who need to be there. If one person only needs to be in one small part, and doesn’t need to be there for the other agenda items, schedule that item first, so that person can participate in their part and then leave. The average number of participants in a meeting is nine, and people surveyed by Attentiv consider 33.4% of meeting time to be unproductive. Too many cooks can certainly spoil the broth. One reason for this perception could be the number one problem with meetings – they are inconclusive, with no clear decisions being made.

Time is Money

Schedule for half the time you think you need to keep the meeting tight and focused. Parkinson’s law claims that work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it. So, if 60 minutes are allotted to a meeting, that’s probably how long you’ll be there. The average meeting length is between 31 and 60 minutes. This is partly because it takes a while for everyone to get on the same page, but participants who are well-prepared can reduce this time considerably. Also, many calendaring apps also only have 30- or 60-minute blocks available to select.

Make sure you start on time – not even one second late. If someone turns up late and misses something important, maybe they’ll learn their lesson and be on time the next time. Set time limits for each agenda item, and end on time or earlier. If all the agenda items have been gotten through, then the meeting is over. People appreciate suddenly finding themselves with more time than they thought they had. Even if you go for the entire allotted time, end promptly at the scheduled time.

Other people might need the room right after you, and if they have to start late because of your meeting, then they end late, and a cascade starts – by the end of the day, everyone is late and wasting time. And if you have refreshments available, don’t spend the first five minutes making sure everyone has a coffee or pastry. If they want them, they can get them beforehand. The meeting should still start on time with the very first agenda item.